The Hot Duke University Vs. John Wayne Estate Action Has Been Tossed Out By The Court

from the made-my-day dept

A few months back, we wrote about the ridiculous story in which Duke University, ostensibly a higher-learning establishment, sued the John Wayne Estate, claiming that its "Duke Bourbon" product might somehow confuse brown-liquor drinkers into thinking that the school produced the product. This, despite the logo for Duke Bourbon including an image of John Wayne and nobody ever defaulting to thinking that a university was going to start making and marketing its own liquor.

And now, with the John Wayne Estate suing for a declaratory judgment, the California court in which the claim was brought has essentially punted on the issue by using a procedural evaluation over jurisdiction.

The judge applied what's known as the “effects test," which measures whether a defendant acted in a way that was wrongful and expressly aimed at affecting California and whether harm was likely to be suffered in the state. Here, Judge Carter says that Duke was aware of John Wayne Enterprises's presence in the state, but that there was no showing how Duke purposefully directed its conduct at California by filing an opposition to trademarks in Virginia. The judge added that other than one Nebraska case, "there is no basis for JWE’s contention that a defendant’s actions to protect its intellectual property rights in an administrative proceeding constitute the type of harm contemplated under the 'effects test.'"
The decision may technically make sense, but damn if it wouldn't be nice for the judge to instead have spent a half an hour laughing directly in the face of Duke University's lawyers before lighting all of their paperwork on fire instead. The entire attempt to block the trademark of a bourbon by the university borders on insane. That this crap will have to go back into a different court before eventually being tossed out is too bad.

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Filed Under: bourbon, duke, john wayne, trademark
Companies: duke university, john wayne estate


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  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2014 @ 9:56pm

    Mike Masnick just hates it when IP law is enforced.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2014 @ 1:18am

      Re:

      Could we just stop these posts, now, please? It's not funny.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2014 @ 4:35am

        Re: Re:

        Unfortunately this is the sort of thing average_joe finds funny. He's probably posting on his wife's laptop again.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Dark Helmet (profile), 3 Oct 2014 @ 3:40am

      Re:

      I agree. This is the worst post Mike Masnick has ever written. I've never read such garbage before. The person who wrote this post should be slapped in the nuts, and that person is obvs Mike Masnick, AKA "The Maz", AKA Mikey Mix-Tape, AKA David Lowery....

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        orbitalinsertion (profile), 3 Oct 2014 @ 3:48am

        Re: Re:

        Weird, I thought it was David Mabus...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Timothy Geigner, 3 Oct 2014 @ 6:25am

        Re: Re:

        Hot Duke University? These posts read like lawyer clown fan-fiction. The tone is childish and significantly diminishes credibility. Why would TechDirt want these representing their brand?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      orbitalinsertion (profile), 3 Oct 2014 @ 3:55am

      Re:

      Huh, IP law was enforced, and it seems like the author wanted even more enforcement, for the sake of sheer pleasure if not for great justice. Oh, and efficiency, and better rulings now rather than later at greater cost.

      But never mind that, how is either side not pro-IP?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 3 Oct 2014 @ 4:31am

    but damn if it wouldn't be nice for the judge to instead have spent a half an hour laughing directly in the face of Duke University's lawyers before lighting all of their paperwork on fire instead

    We'd need giant incinerators to burn all the ridiculous paperwork that probably go through the judicial system... But the image made me laugh out loud :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael, 3 Oct 2014 @ 4:59am

    I believe you have a misprint.

    The decision may technically make sense, but damn if it wouldn't be nice for the judge to instead have spent a half an hour laughing directly in the face of Duke University's lawyers before lighting all of their paperwork on fire instead.

    should read:

    The decision may technically make sense, but damn if it wouldn't be nice for the judge to instead have spent a half an hour laughing directly in the face of Duke University's paperwork before lighting all of their lawyers on fire instead.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    lars626, 3 Oct 2014 @ 6:00am

    I wonder

    I wonder what brand of bourbon they are drinking at the Duke legal department.
    Whatever it is, I need to stay away from it. That stuff is causing some severe dementia.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    ysth (profile), 3 Oct 2014 @ 9:12am

    "The Duke"

    Probably worth pointing out to the "culturally" ignorant that John Wayne was called "The Duke" (though he apparently preferred to be addressed as just "Duke" or his birth name, "Marion").

    Wikipedia helpfully provides a list of others for DU to target.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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